


aconitum

by MiniNephthys



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Child Neglect, Gen, Suicide, Verbal Abuse, marital rape, nobles! are! bad!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:41:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22080112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiniNephthys/pseuds/MiniNephthys
Summary: Hanneman's sister writes to him about her marriage.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	aconitum

My dear brother,

I am delighted to receive your correspondence. It is a shame that you cannot visit, but I understand the importance of your Crestology studies.

Still, I hope that you can find time to visit after my child is born! I will have to introduce them to their favorite uncle, after all. Everyone in the manor is all atwitter waiting for their birth - my husband hardly lets me get out of bed lest I hurt the baby.

Would you like a niece or a nephew? My husband says that he wants a son. I don’t mind either as long as they’re born healthy and happy.

Your loving sister,  
Desdemona

My esteemed brother,

Oswald was born perfectly healthy, thank the goddess. He resembles me a little more than his father, I think, but time will tell if he grows the Essar beard. I’d be just as happy if he didn’t, as dignified as it looks on you.

He has no Crest. My husband is very disappointed, but I was able to reassure him that our other children will have them.

I am already pregnant with our second. At the moment, the last thing I want is to go through labor again, but I’m told such silly thoughts will be long gone by the time our next child is born. I am still learning how to be a proper wife, after all.

Tell me more of your research! You have such skill at explaining it to even the unlearned. Have you ever considered becoming a teacher?

Your adoring sister,  
Desdemona

My elder brother,

My husband has very little interest in Oswald’s growth. I can understand that, since childrearing is women’s work, but I worry. I don’t remember much of when our father was raising us, certainly not in my infancy, but he was at least somewhat involved.

Please tell me that I’m only fretting over nothing, dear Hanneman. You were always good at keeping my flights of fancy in check.

Your sister,  
Desdemona

My loving brother,

Rosalind is a beautiful child, and learning quickly: less than a month old and she’s already making sounds! None of my friends’ children were anywhere near as smart, if you’ll pardon my bragging a moment.

My husband won’t listen to such things. Rosalind has no Crest, so he does not care. When I mentioned that we should get a nursemaid to help with caring for two children, he seemed to have forgotten they needed looking after at all.

I am not yet pregnant with a third, but not for lack of trying. Looking after two infants leaves me little energy for such things, but for my husband’s sake, I summon up what I can. Perhaps after I am pregnant with a third child, he will have more attention to spare for our first two.

Your sister,  
Desdemona

My brother,

I am sorry for the long delays in my letters. Thank you for your patience.

I bore twins. Cornelius and Cleomines, neither of them carrying a Crest. My husband is growing angry. He ‘jested’ that we should simply throw out one of them as an extra. I don’t believe he was speaking entirely in jest.

I do not want to bear another child. I do not wish to bring a child in the world whose father has no interest in their wellbeing. In a moment of bravery, or perhaps madness, I told my husband this.

I am pregnant with a fifth child.

Desdemona

Hanneman,

By the time you receive this letter, I will be with the goddess.

My husband does not look at me. When he speaks to me it is only in insults. I am useless, defective, a waste of his time. If our fifth child does not carry a Crest, he will leave them out on the mountainside to die rather than waste any of his precious money on them.

He will not have the opportunity. I won’t allow him. It is my one act of defiance.

They will say that it was disease of the heart that killed me. I suppose that it will be, in a way. But it will also be wolf’s bane.

Thank you for keeping your correspondence with me all this time. It has done me good to know that one person loved me for more than my use as an incubator.

I am, and will always be, your dearly adoring sister.

Desdemona


End file.
